Global Warming Insanity

Last year a 17-year-old boy was admitted to the psych unit of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. He refused to drink water believing that millions would die from drought related climate change.

Robert Salo, the psychiatrist who runs the unit has now seen several more patients with psychosis or anxiety disorders focused on climate change, as well as children who are having nightmares about global-warming-related disasters.

Anxiety over current events is not a new phenomenon. Worries about threats such as nuclear war or AIDS have been woven into the mental illnesses of each generation. But global warming could have a broader and deeper effect on mental health.